The Sun. — London, England, 1818-01-13 00:00:00

THE CATHOLIC CLAIMS. FOR THE SUN. (LETTER Vl.] MR. EDTTOR,—.-111 my last Letter I found it necessary to prove that a direct mis-statement lay on the threshold of the " Address and Appeal of the Roman Catholics of Ireland to the Pro testants of the United Kingdom," and as the Appellants endeavour to throw us off our guard, by professing that " their case is simple," a gross, violation of Truth, voluntarily committed (because in every discussion of the question, and in : every stage of it, the fact has been brought to the proof), must surely rouse every reflecting man, to pause before he can repose confidence in any one statement or opinion which may be sub sequently brought before him by the persons who are thus proved guilty of it. That no doubt may lurk in the mind of the most incredulous, and that any future attempt to impose this stale de vice upon The People may be rendered abortive, I shall here put upon record the admission of the Parties themselves, that their present assertion, that the Body of Irish Roman Catholics consists of six millions, is false and groundless. Mr. GRATTAN', in 1762, when anxious to give all the force and importance in his power to the numbers of The Roman Catholics, states them at two millions. Dr. BUTLER, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, repeats the same in 1787. The Body itself, of Roman Catholics, in ad dressing the Duke of CLARENCE in 1787, state their own nu»zbers to be two millions. Now here is evidence produced, I repeat, from the parties themselves, to confute their own statements—and I leave any dispassionate man to decide, whether it is likely that they were originally under the mark, or whether, in point of fact, they did not greatly exceed it, as was repeatedly stated at the time ! In the year 1788, a calculation was made, and the Truth was ascertained as nearly as pos sible, that the Roman Catholic Population of Ireland was to that of the Protestant, as ()NB to TWO AND A HALF !—so that if we admit the Roman Catholic Population to be six millions, we shall have a result of TWENTY-ONE MILLIONs, as the whole Population of Ireland. What an admirable Census for a Poll Tax! This is, however, what the present Appellants call having " a simple case," and for which they demand " a patient bearing." We will now, then, proceed to " the simple ease" itself, with somewhat more scepticism, in deed, than might. have been deemed necessary in the absence of so candid an exordium to put us upon our guard ! The first sentence at which we arrive, it must be confessed, comes, with rather an ill grace :—" Our case is simple—it does not " require the aid of any factitious illustr& ion to " display its merits—we entertain no secret views." Surely, after what we have already seen, this very declaration is in itself a just ground of si!s picion ; and what, Sir, do you conceive, is the confirmation brought in proof of its sincerity ? _Nothing less than an assertion, in as plain and explicit terms as can well be conceived, that from the period of our glorious Revolution up to the present hour, we have been upholding cr rotten and imperfect Constitution, which can only be restored to a state of purity and activity by the accession of the Roman Catholics as Legislators and Admi- tistrators ! Take the statement of this " simple case" in their own words—" We seek not to " accomplish AN INNOVATION of the Constitution, " but to accelerate its unrestricted operation" ! ! ! They may well boast of having no secret oiews-- but did they imagine that, with all the proverbial credulity of Englishmen accumulated upon our shoulders, we were to be duped by the use of simple professions into the adoption of suicidal measures against the Constitution ? It is to be remembered, that they have already told us, that they are excluded " by an unwise and unjust Code of Laws," which Code of Laws is neither more no less than the Constitution as settled at the Re- volution. But this side-blow is not enough. Having boasted their numbers: they approach in front of the Constitution and unfurl their Banners against it. They tell us, that these are their Views " so lemnly and repeatedly promulgated." This, by the wry, is again untrue; unless the declaration be restricted within the walls of the Irish Associa- It has never appeared in a tangible form on their side of the question, although it has solemnly and repeatedly been promulgated" on Lions. the part of their Opponents—by Opponents who Lave been stigmatized by every foul epithet that could be gleaned from the modern school of Li berality, for falsely colouring the objects and views of the calumniated Roman Catholics! 1 dety them to produce a sentence, in all their writings and communications (save and except those which have not seen made Public in the mission of Mr. 11A7 ES alit! others to ROME) that can be forced into a meaning which the present Manifesto bears upon its front ! The Constitution, Sir, from the period of the Revolution, has been essentially PROTESTANT.— Separation front the Church of Rome is its berg foundation and its corner-stone. I repeat, then, it is essentially Protestant, because the REFORMA TION went no further than to exclude the POPR fl OUI all Jurisdiction within these realms,; bnt his many adherents and instruments, whose bi gotry still retained them in their bondage to him, mole than once threatened, by their intrigues and false professions, to impose ,again time galling yoke upon our necks ! The last and almost successful attempt on the part of JAmEs 11. to second these efforts roused the Nation into action, and that weak and priest-ridden Monarch was driven from the Throne by an United Nation of Protestants. \Witt was the natural and obvious policy which followed upon this Revolution ?—A system which went not only to the Exclusion of the POPE from all direct interference, against which the laws had already provided, but of his indirect influence through the Instrumentality of POPERY, by de priving PAPISTS in this Country FOR EVER of the power by the use of which they might again be rendered mischievously effective against the Con stitution. To assume, therefore, that the Con- stitution is imperfect, because the Papkts are ex clock(' trona its Administrative Functions, is to falsity History—to assert that the admission (not time re-admission) of them to these functions, is not an innoviition upon the Constitution, is a pal pable untruth. Observe, however, the fallacy of their own reasoning, even if their facts were un questionable, for in the two first paragraphs of their Address they take upon them to assert, that the Constitution, as established at the Revolu tion, i; "unjust and unwise," whilst they deny that they wish for any innouation! Surely, it the existing laws are in their view of the case really "unjust and unwise," they cannot consistently desire, that they shOuld be persevered in ; how then is it, that they profess their object to be "to accelerate their unrestricted operation?" What ! Is their object to give fall and unrestrained opera tion to unjust and ruinous Laws? If not—they must purpose innovation ? On which of the horns of this dilemma they are disposed to hang their cause, is to me immaterial . they may decide ac cording to the best and most able of their Ca suists, from Loyola downwards ; but I defy them to prove, according to their ()wt./ " simple" state ment, that the Laws and Constitution, unwise or unjust us they may appvar in their eyes, are not the Laws and Constitution which were establish- ed at the Revoluri►►n ; and further, atm the claims which they now set up, are not incompatible with, and in d►rect opposition to them, and that, therefore, a compliance with them would not be an innouation—l use the moder4te term under which they cloak their approaches against the Const tion—hut with the History of my Country before me, I have no hesitati►►n in exten►ling the term to the fullest construction of a Cout4THR-ItavoLu TroN ! ! The Constitution was reformed, and purged of the evils which had for a length of time produced convulsions and agitation, threatening its very existence. These evils were principally, if not altogether, found to arise out of the repeated struggle for Ascendancy among the Followers and Abettors of Popery and its constant concomita►►ts, arbitrary principles of Government. To preuent efectually the recurrence of these evils, the Pope anti Pomy were FOR EVER excluded as consti tuent parts of the Legislative or Mi►►isterial lune- tions of the State. It was this exclusion, the went labour of the Constitutional Whigs, which charac terised the Revolution ! Ihe PROTESTANT As- CENTRANCY (now so unfashionable a term) was the darling object of Britons, and the still wore _ - recently exploded cry of " No PoPEEv," was the rallying word of every Constitutional Man, who considered himself and his posterity as for ever res cued front the chains which an unsettled Consti tution had imposed upon their fathers, and held suspended in terrorem over themselves !—This was Tux REVOLUTION : this was the boasted and glorious signal of perpetuated Freedom' to Eng lishmen. It was this, and little beyond this, and nothing unconnected with it, which marked and distinguished that EPOCiI in our history, to which even the Miscreant Rabble of Subscribers to the support of Blasphemy and Sedition pretend at least to refer, as the security of Constitutional Rights and the Freedom of their Countrymen ! and nothing can more strongly testify the de plorable and mischievous consequences likely to arise hum the proposed subversion of the Con- stitution, than the . constant support given to the, Claims of the Roman Catholics for power, by those bitter and inveterate enemies to the Govern- went ct our Couutry, the Patriots, Blasphemers and Reformers in the present day. It is by them anticipated as a vast accession of strength to the Cause of Jacobinism, because it will put arms into the hands of those who are like then;selves hostile to every Institution, both in Church and State— forgetting in. their ignorance, and in the pride and vain conceits of their hearts, .that they would be the first victims of the newly acquired powers of Papal and Arbitrary Governors. If these poor puling and wretched Orators at Common Halls, Clubs and Taverns, were even acquainted with the outlines of their own History, they would know that the most active among the puritanical and 9ctlitious Demagogues in the Great Rebellion were Papist* acting under Papal Dispensations, and that the strength and influence thus acquired enabled them to make those desperate advances towards the Establishment of Popery and Ty- ranny, which the United Force of the Country would have found it difficult to check, had not JAMES H. been as dastardly in his abdication as he was bigoted in his principles. The situation of the Country, Sir, is appalling to the feelings of every honest and sincere Lover of the Constitution. The State is assailed by a faction of blood-thirsty and relentless Reformers, whose principles are steeped in the foulest and most loathsome dregs of the French Revolution. They are desperate in Character and Fortune, and elated by an unimpeded and hitherto saccessful career, towards the gratification of their abomi nable aspirations, they rush on headlong to their purpose. They have triumphed over the Tribu nals of Public Justice, and sapped the foundation of our Rights, by intimidating and overawing Juries, who are the Constitutional Guardians of those Rights ; and Corruption, which is slander ously imputed to our Governors, is boldly practised by THEM, in substituting the passions and pre judices of men for the even and impartial course of Justide. It matters not on which side the Laws are infringed; if they be infringed, the safety of the Subject is compromised, and our Liberties endangered. But, Sir, our danger stops not here. Not only are the minds of the People poisoned by the senseless miserable trash of the democratic cheap Press, which the mistaken mode ration of Government, in my mind, has tended to encourage, but by that which we have hitherto been taught to consider as a Constitutional Safeguard to our Liberties, the Opposition Party of Statesmen, who, whatever may have been the ob ject of their union, have hitherto been supposed to contend for the Constitution, and the Constitu tion only, but appear now to be identified with the basest and lowest of the Jacobin Tribe of Level lers and Reformers ! Has despair of office, which first engendered the system of Calumny and per sonal Insult towards our illustrious REGENT, who, before his rejection of this Party, was loaded with their most fulsome panegyric and high sounding epithets of greatness and magnanimity ?—has the despair, I ash, occasioned by protracted banish ment from the conduct of Public Affairs, blinded the Party to all just discrimination of Principle ? Are they resolved to identify themselves with the outcasts of Society and the dregs of Jacobinism, in order to compass the ends they have view, of FORCING themselves into the Councils of The PRINCE REGENT, and defeating their political Ad versaries, who have raised the Glory of the Coun try to an height unknown to our Forefathers, and that too, in honourable and progressive confuta tion of the daily prophetic Diatribes of these men, against the measures and policy which have atchieved this greatness ! The Party had, indeed, sufficiently degraded itself, by still retaining in their ranks men so apostate from the honour and principles of their Forefathers, as to uphold a Military Usurper against the Interests and Glory of their own Country ; who, forgetting all the ties of Patriotism which bind men in Society against a Common Enemy, made Common Cause with that Enemy, and surrounded a Tyrant, whose ob ject was Universal Domination, with the tomes of their Incense, covering the worship. of their Idol with the Titles and Insignia of Liberty ; who at the same time made WELLINGTON their scoff; the Butt of their licentious Ribaldry, and prognosti cated defeat and disgrace up to the hour of the most signal victory ever gained to the arms of a Country in ancient or modern Times; who felt the disgrace and overthrow of BUONAPARTE with all the sympathy of Partisans, and wept his fall, instead of hallowing with their 'gratitude the glory of their Fellow Countrymen ; I say, Sir, degraded even as they appeared to be by conduct which would have consigned men to exile and ignominy in the freest times of the Free States of Greece and Rome, we could not have extended our suspicions without being justly charged with illiberality, ,so far as to have sup posed them capable of identifying their cause with the Upholders and Supporters of such a Being as HONE, who is known to them only aS the Preacher and Publisher of open Sedition and Blasphemy ! Yet, Sir, we have seen a Bri tish Peer, an Earl of Great Britain, head the list of Subscribers to REWARD this Man; and time Organ of the Party—the Official Editor of their acknow ledged and avowed Journal, not only contributing to and supporting the same Cause, but volunta rily stepping forward to propose to the Country as an object of Public Veneration and Gratitude, Sir F. BURDETT ! 111 such a moment of anar chy—in the full tide of anticipated success against the State, where the Constitutional Opposition (though rejected and spurned upon former occa sions by the Rabble of Democrats) are identified with the lowest and most desperate of the Jaco bins ; in such a moment, I say, the Enemies of the CHURCH start forth, and embodying their se veral phalanxes, march, hand in hand, with the Champions of Reform. One Division under the Dissenter's Flag (which alas ! is saluted from within) the other under the Orifiamme of the Pa pists ! Every enemy that our noble Constitution has had hitherto to contend with separately, is, in the present Crisis of the Country, united and combined against it. Blasphemy and Hetero doxy, Sedition, and Newfangled Creeds, Fana tics, and disappointed Statesmen, Preachers, and ,Patriots, disregarding all minor points of differ ence, sympathise in one universal object, their de testation and abhorrence of " THINGS AS THEY ARE." Is this a moment to temporise? Is this a period for doubtful or hesitating or halting po licy ? Let this picture of Facts speak the an swer ! Come forth ye Men of Honour and Pa triot-worth, for such still abound in this Coun try Let not the Cabals of Party, or time machi• nations of Faction, appal or disheat ten you.— Rally round the Throne of your Sovereign ; array yourselves before the Altar of your Forefathers-- assemble and unite in force irresistible to save your Country. Let every Town present a tally log point for honest and patriotic Citizens. Le , the old-fashioned and truly British Feeling - • ere the alloy of France and her spurious aid pullfir ing Philosophism had mingled in ii, burst rot ti to loud acclaim for " CHURCH . AND KING." Let the enemies of Freedom and the Laws neno:(1 the strength and force of those who will uphold them with their lives and fortunes.—Let Petitions and Addresses pour forth from every County and ever? Town against the abuses of the Press, the lire; tiousness of those base panders to the yitiareu passions of their ignorant followers ; let the bead' ers be pointed out individually, as titled adulterer s and titled swindlers, as apostate hirelings in th° service of the enemy, as tr-liiors and conspirators' Let the new4angled Philosophy he exposed in l" tree character:* and divest, d of the Nomenclatur e of the Illumines and Encyclopedists ; let not murder, rapine, and extortion be any longer tole' rAted under the name of Patriotism, or ravening e selfishness appropriate to its e lf the Attribute 01 Public Spirit. In a voice of thunder, and with a gesture not to be misunderstood, let us proclaim our Resolution never to desert our Chartered Rights— NOLUMUS LEGFS ANGLIJE lIVTARI. Let us repel the Invaders and the Innovators--the bold Assailant and the insidious Petitioner—th e Blasphemer of GoD, and the Perverter of His Worship to the glorifying of Man ; Profane PiV . rodists and Pagan Rituals—in fine, Reformers and Jacobins of the French Schools, and the Proptv gandists of the Church of Rome.—Here , we mot make our stand—here fix our tent, resolved la live and die in defence of that Birth• Right which has been sealed in the Blood of Martyrs, and re• gistered by the GREAT FATHERS of the Revolt"' Lion. I fear I am occupying too large a portion of your Paper to-day ; but it were treason to corn' press matter of such vital importance to the Peo" ple of this Country. What I 'have been impelled to urge may, at first sight, appear irrelevat.t t° the particular subject I have taken in hand ; but tt is far otherwise ; all the schemes of Innovatior l and Reform are working together for our destroc' tion, and it requires but little observation two° what is passing, under the different heads of or ganization, in the present moment, to discern tile fearful and awful " Signs of the Ti►nes." LANFRANC- FRENCH PAPERS. CHAMBER OF PEERS, JAN. 8. On the Order of the Day twin.; read for the dig' cession of the Projet respecting the Liberty of tbc Press, which had been examined in the Bureau% previous to the sitting, The Chamber, instead of opening the discos' sion, referred the Projet for examination to s Special Committee of five Members, viz. the Mar" quis Pastore!, the Viscount de Montmorency, th e Count Abrial, the Marquis Gamier, and the Coac t de Castellane.—Adjourned. No day fixed for the next Sitting. CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES, JAN. S. The propositions of M. Dtivergier de Hauranil were discussed in general Committe e , an d ac l o p l e' with some slight amendments. According t o one of these no Deputy can he admitted to sit in 0 6 Chamber who was not for y years of age complete at the time of his election. PARIS, SAN. 9.—The King has h a d for soar days a slight att ac k o f the gout in his left 1 11 " but which does not prevent him from tra n sact' ing business with his Ministers. Felix Desportes and several other French exile have obtained permission to reside in the Austria!' States. They are to remain, however, under the must rigorous surveillance. On the 30th ult. between s even an d e i g ht the morning, the COunt d e Wittgenstein, Colon e of the Legion of Hohenlohe, in garrison at Afi l " lence, was found dead in his chamber, • havolg shot himself through the head with a pistol load' ed with several balls. A few minutes previous!): he had given some orders to his servant with usual tranquillity. Five per Cents.--Thursday, 65f. 45c. VIENNA ' DEC. 29.—1 t is confidently stated• that the Germanic Diet is to be transferred to this capital. The Infant of Spain, who is here, after a further stay of some weeks, will proceed to Warsaw, an d from thence to St. Petersburgh. BERLIN, Dec. 27.—There is a talk of 'rani' ferring from hence to Potsdam several of th e public establishments. COPENHAGEN, DEC. 23.—According to a re' port from the Danish Consul at Smyrna, th e plague has ceased in that city and in all the d 1) tricts of the Consulate. DRESDEN, DEC. 28.—1 t is now known 04 ' 11 : certainty that there will be no new r e d uct ion 0 ' the Saxon army. _ _ RomE, Dac. 20.—Several State Prisoners have been brought here from Romagna and the Marche- They are perso ns o f no i mpor tance.—They lied formed a conspiracy to take Macerata by force, and assassinate the friends of Government. On Monday se•nnight the Trustees and go naging Committee of the Winchester Provident Institution, or Bank for Savings, held their second annual meeting at the Guildhall.; this Rev. G. Heathcote in the chair. From the ac' counts laid before the meeting by the Secretaries/ Thomas Deane and Barnard Winter, Esqrs. it appears, that (exclusive of 1261. 7s. received that day) the amount of sums deposited since the cord' mencement 0: the Institution on the Ist January' 1816. is 77121. 9s. Bd. ; the whole of which, with the interest and the profit arising from the sale of stock, standing in the names of the Trustees, Previously to Int; late Act of Parliament, has been invessed• in the Government debentures to the amount of 84501. Ot the total sum deposited 10481 12s. has been paid out for principal anti o a tt i er ia es ry, of n deposits ithdrawu since the Ist of January, Th e thanks of ihe meeting were voted to the Alayor and Corporation, for the aeii. coAmiodation afforded by them to the Committees in the use of a room at the Guildhall ; as also to the Secretaries for their zealous -.4:1 vices in prod !Holing the ohjec(s of the lostilut 1011. PLOW MONDAY.-Yesterday bri , g Plow Mon.. day, the Lotto MAYOR was occupied during the whole of it day in nw,'iting in the Common , Conned and OtticelS at the ch4erent Wards in the City of London, .111. T E , t p a p 4 11 V to l SI tht • '.l i Ili, ti, G